FOR THE NEW UKRAINIAN SCHOOL — COMPETENCY ORIENTED TEXTBOOKS: CONCEPTUAL BASICS OF THE CONTENT AND STRUCTURE OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEXTBOOKS FOR THE1ST GRADE «MyPal»

Abstract

In the article, the authors review the conceptual foundations of the content and structure of the English language textbook for the 1st grade «MyPal», which are based on the priority trends of the development modern school-based foreign language education: competency, communicative, activity-oriented, personally-oriented and culturological approaches. They associate their views with the age-old features and potential of 1st grade pupils. The qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the training material in accordance with the current curriculum requirements, are substantiated. They describe the didactic and methodological principles of constructing the content of the textbook, determine its structure. The theoretical model of the textbook is considered by the authors as one that based on the definition of its two-sided essence: 1) as a carrier of the English language education content and 2) as a mean of teaching English language communication. Accordingly, the textbook is a kind of model of educational work of pupils and methodological activity of the teacher. The main characteristics of the textbook content are following: 1) accordance with the actual communicative interests of primary pupils and conditions of education; 2) stimulation of the development of the first-graders interests, influence on their motivational sphere, growing positive attitude to the English language; 3) focusing on connection pupils with a new language code and culture of English native speakers; 4) usage of experience gained by firstgraders during mastering the mother tongue and other subjects; 5) provision of educational and developmental needs of pupils, stimulation their independent activity.